Sam Raimi not locked for Oz, gives update on World of Warcraft

June 26, 2010 - By Liam Goodwin

Earlier this month we heard that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi had signed up to direct Oz, The Great And Powerful with Robert Downey Jr. playing the Wizard. Well in an interview with Collider the director said that while he has read the script he is “not really committed” at the moment, although he would like to be involved.

Raimi also gave an update on the World of Warcraft movie which he signed up to direct last year.

“We’re still working on the story right now,” Raimi said. “We’ve got a 40 page document that needs a lot more work. It’s still a long ways away. It’s only a 40-page story.”

“There are so many characters in the game that we’re really trying to pull upon the most exciting and different characters of the game,” he said. “So many different characters and so many different professions, I don’t think we could touch upon all of them satisfactorily. So we’re trying to choose the ones that are interesting and could play a part in a drama that slowly develops.”

“We’re just trying to create realistic characters that can live in the world of Warcraft as though you were in the game itself, in one or two or three of those environments and see the interaction of those great mythical, iconic characters.”

Sam Raimi isn’t just looking at World of Warcraft from the outside. He’s spent hours obsessively exploring the game online. “I had a level 29 shaman that somebody deleted by accident that I worked my way up to. Now I’ve worked a new character all the way up to level 72. So that’s exactly how big a fan I am. I’m not into power leveling, other people doing it for me. I’ve spent that many days in the World of Warcraft.”

Well I guess he did have a bit of spare time this year *cough* Spider-Man 4 *cough*. Warcraft fans will be pleased to know he is one of them, and I can see Raimi doing something cool with the mythology when it eventually gets round to production.